In this episode, part 4 in our Black in AI series, i’m joined by Charles Onu, Phd Student at McGill University in Montreal & Founder of Ubenwa, a startup tackling the problem of infant mortality due to asphyxia.

Using SVMs and other techniques from the field of automatic speech recognition, Charles and his team have built a model that detects asphyxia based on the audible noises the child makes upon birth. We go into the process he used to collect his training data, including the specific methods they used to record samples, and how their samples will be used to maximize accuracy in the field. We also take a deep dive into some of the challenges of building and deploying the platform and mobile application. This is a really interesting use case, which I think you’ll enjoy.

Enter Our #MyAI Contest!

Are you looking forward to the role AI will play in your life, or in your children’s lives? Or, are you afraid of what’s to come, and the changes AI will bring? Or, maybe you’re skeptical, and don’t think we’ll ever really achieve enough with AI to make a difference?

In any case, if you’re a TWiML listener, you probably have an opinion on the role AI will play in our lives, and we want to hear your take. Sharing your thoughts takes two minutes, can be done from anywhere, and qualifies you to win some great prizes. So hit pause, and jump on over twimlai.com/myai right now to share or learn more.

Conference Update

Be sure to check out some of the great names that will be at the AI Conference in New York, Apr 29–May 2, where you’ll join the leading minds in AI, Peter Norvig, George Church, Olga Russakovsky, Manuela Veloso, and Zoubin Ghahramani. Explore AI’s latest developments, separate what’s hype and what’s really game-changing, and learn how to apply AI in your organization right now. Save 20% on most passes with discount code PCTWIML. Early price ends February 2!